Triglycerides are common natural materials, their structure is:
Triglycerides are esters that are the reaction product of glycerin and fatty acids.
Triglycerides are very common in nature and are commonly used in cosmetic products to provide physical properties and ascetics. Triglycerides are commonly called oils, fats, butters and waxes. These terms are used to describe the physical and chemical composition of the triglyceride. Butters, oils and fats are all triglycerides. The major physical difference between butters, oils and fats are their melt and titer points: Fats have a titer point of over 40.5° C., oils have a titer point of below 40.5° C., and butters have a titer below 40.5° C. but above 20° C. Oils are liquid at room temperature and we now use this word to describe any compound that is a liquid and is insoluble in water. As a result, Jojoba is referred to as oil, despite the fact it is really a liquid wax.
Because oils, fats, butters and waxes are complex mixtures of homologues of similar chemical structures, it is difficult to obtain a true melting point. As the lower molecular weight fractions melt, they act as solvents to dissolve the higher molecular weight products. This results in a very wide melting “range” for these compounds. For this reason, titer point is generally determined on fats, oils, waxes and butters.
Titer is defined as the re-solidification point of the melted oil, fat butter or wax. The procedure is to heat the product to be tested until it is completely liquid, then to slowly cool with stirring. This is done until the temperature stays constant for 30 seconds, or begins to rise. The titer point is the highest temperature indicated by this rise.
Triglycerides are the tri-ester of glycerin with three equivalents of fatty acid. Fatty acids are defined as those acids having alkyl or alkylene groups being C-5 and higher. The reaction is as follows:

Triglycerides occur commonly in nature, but lack the desired aesthetics for many personal care applications. It is the pursuit of improving the feel of these commonly occurring natural triglycerides that are the materials of interest in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,914,546 to Barsky et al teaches interesterification of mixed glyceryl compounds.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,306,906 to Wohlman and O'Lenick teach a process for conditioning hair and skin which comprise contacting the skin or hair with an effective conditioning concentration of a of the reaction product of meadowfoam oil and an ester selected from the group consisting of beeswax, jojoba oil, carnauba wax, and candelilla wax.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,180,668 to Wohlman and O'Lenick disclose a series of “reconstituted meadowfoam oils”, used on skin for moisturizing and emollient applications. The term reconstituted as used hereon refers to a process in which meadowfoam oil and one or more oils of natural origin are transesterified under conditions of high temperature and catalyst to make a “reconstituted product” having an altered alkyl distribution and consequently altered chemical and physical properties.
These referenced patents are incorporated herein by reference.
None of these patents provide polyester derivatives of mixed fatty esters of glyceryl as envisioned by the present invention. Specifically, they are not polymeric materials that have the benefit of unique physical properties due to molecular weight increase, no skin penetration due to high molecular weight, and the combination of liquid and solid domain groups critical to the properties of the present invention.
Fatty acids of differing chain lengths and structures will have different physical properties. A triglyceride containing two different fatty chain length with have physical properties of a blend of the two fatty acids. If the fatty acids are confined to a domain of the polymer (pendant groups are located in regio-specific positions of the polymer backbone), a multi-domain polymer is formed. This multi-domain polymer will have highly organized “pockets” or domains of solid fatty groups, surrounded by liquid domains. The physical properties of the multi-domain polymer will be extremely different than the random triglyceride. By judicious control of the placement of these domains results in a high definition polymer. The preparation of polymers with highly desired aesthetics requires that different sections of the molecule have controlled alkyl groups. Addition of all the groups in the reaction mixture results in a random alkyl substitution pattern and loss of the desired aesthetics. Only by careful stepwise reaction can the products having exact structural properties be assured, thereby assuring performance in highly sophisticated formulations.